Kale Masoor Daal ki Palao

Many friends often complain that their Biryani and Palao never comes out right and they ask me how to make a perfect Biryani and Palao...well its quite simple, the secret lies on the quality of Rice you are using and how much water you are using, too much water, will make the rice go soft and soggy, too little water, will leave the rice hard and uncooked....

I had promised my friend Prem that I would tell her how to make Black Masoor Daal ki Palao...its quite simple to make and its a complete dish on its own...so here goes...keep your fingers crossed....

1 kg Long grained basmati rice
250 gm Black Masoor ki daal
1 cup appox 250 gm Oil or Ghee
1 kg Meat lamb or chicken cut into smaller pieces
4 medium sized Onions finely sliced
2 Teaspoon Ginger paste
2 Teaspoon Garlic paste
5 to 6 pieces Cloves
8 to 10 pods of Green Cardamons
8 to 10 Pepper Corns
2 inch Cinammon Stick
2 teaspoon Jeera
2 Bay Leaf
8 dried round chilies
Salt to taste
a pinch of orange food color mixed in little water

Soak the cleaned Black Masoor ki Daal for about 3 to 4 hours.
Now take a deep shallow cooking pot and add the Ghee and fry the finely sliced onions till they are golden in color, when they are done take them out with a slotted spoon and place in a paper towel and let it cool.
In the same ghee add half of the fried onions, ginger garlic paste and all the spices and fry them for a minute or so until the spice start to give their aroma then add the meat, black masoor ki daal, salt and fry for a couple of minutes then add about 2 glass of water and set the flame on low heat and cook the meat and daal until its almost done.
Now wash the rice and soak them in clean water for about 1/2 an hour then add the rice in the meat which is cooking and add water, water should be about 1 inch above the rice mixture, cook the rice mixture on high heat and as water starts to dry, lower the flame to low heat and add the remaining fried onions and sprinkle the orange food color all over the Palao and cook on low flame until its done.
Turn off the flame when the Palao is done let the Palao rest for about 10 to 15 mintues and mix well, serve with salad and raita....